There’s been a lot of talk about Microsoft Fabric and what it means for data teams. Especially after LeapFrogBI sent half of our developers to the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference 2025, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about what Microsoft Fabric does and how it compares to tools like Azure Synapse and Power BI.
Basically, Microsoft Fabric is an all-in-one platform for data management. It consolidates data integration, transformation, and visualization into one seamless experience that reduces complexity and helps speed up time to insight.
Here’s a closer look at what Microsoft Fabric is, two of Microsoft Fabric’s top features, and how it can help your organization make smarter, more informed decisions.
What is Microsoft Fabric?
Microsoft Fabric is an all-in-one analytics platform that integrates data engineering, data science, real-time analytics, and business intelligence. It allows organizations to ingest data from multiple sources into OneLake (Microsoft’s built-in data lake), and then prepare, transform, and visualize that data—all in a single platform. What makes Microsoft Fabric special? It has deep integration with Power BI, a tool many teams are already familiar with. In fact, Power BI is now technically part of the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem. When you log into Power BI, you’re greeted with the Fabric logo, a sign that Microsoft is evolving Power BI from a purely reporting tool to a full analytics solution.
2 Top Features of Microsoft Fabric
Microsoft Fabric is chockfull of impressive capabilities—but these two stand out for their immediate impact and broad appeal:
1. Real-Time Intelligence
One of the most exciting features in Fabric is Real-Time Intelligence. With this workload, users can stream and analyze data within milliseconds. For analysts who need to monitor performance, track trends, and respond to events in real time, Real-Time Intelligence is a game-changer.
While Power BI real-time visualizations have been limited, Microsoft Fabric takes things one step further with a Real-Time Events Hub specifically designed to process low-latency data. With some basic KQL (Kusto Query Language), you can build dashboards that surface insights right as data arrives.
2. Copilot in Fabric
Just like in Word, Excel, and Teams, Copilot is now part of Microsoft Fabric. With this AI assistant, you can get help generating code, interpreting trends, and asking natural-language questions about your datasets.
For example, you could ask Copilot:
- “What were my top-performing regions last quarter?”
- “Generate a DAX measure to calculate year-over-year sales growth.”
- “Which products had the highest profit margin by region?”
Copilot gives organizations a win-win: It helps developers get unstuck and empowers non-technical users to interact with data more intuitively.
How Microsoft Fabric Helps Growing Businesses
If your business is expanding, then your analytics need to grow with you. Because Microsoft Fabric is built for scalability, it can help organizations centralize data management, reduce tool sprawl, and enable real-time decision-making. This is especially helpful for small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that want enterprise-grade capabilities—without enterprise-level complexity.
For example, the unified Microsoft Fabric UI makes it easy to:
- Consolidate tools across your data stack
- Collaborate across data, IT, and business teams in unified environment
- Maintain governance and security across all workloads
Whether you’re focused on reporting or streaming analytics, Fabric provides a common platform to unify your efforts.
How LeapFrogBI is investing in Microsoft Fabric
At LeapFrogBI, we’re always looking for tools that help our clients reach their data goals faster and more affordably. Microsoft Fabric fits that vision—and we’re already diving in:
- We have a developer certified as a Microsoft Fabric Data Engineer.
- Several other team members are actively pursuing Microsoft Fabric certification.
- We’re exploring shared licensing options to help smaller clients take advantage of Fabric without the expensive overhead of enterprise licensing.
Whether you’re already leveraging Power BI or just starting your analytics journey, Microsoft Fabric offers a powerful next step—and we’re here to help you take it.
Thinking About Microsoft Fabric for Your Business?
So, what is Microsoft Fabric? It’s a unified data platform that integrates everything from ingestion to visualization, with powerful features like Real-Time Intelligence, Copilot, and Power BI integration.
For growing businesses, Microsoft Fabric offers a streamlined way to manage data, reduce tool sprawl, and unlock real-time insights. But it’s still new—and not necessarily the right fit for every organization.
At LeapFrogBI, we don’t just implement tools. We help you choose the right ones. Whether that’s Microsoft Fabric or another BI solution, we tailor a strategy that fits your business. Curious if Microsoft Fabric is the right fit for you? Schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation, and let’s talk about how the right data tools can drive smarter, goal-focused decisions for your organization.
What Is Microsoft Fabric — FAQs
1. What is Microsoft Fabric used for?
Microsoft Fabric is used to unify data engineering, real-time analytics, data science, and business intelligence in a single platform. It allows organizations to ingest, store, transform, and visualize data—all in one place.
2. Is there a Microsoft Fabric certification?
Yes, Microsoft offers the Fabric Analytics Engineers Associate Certification and the Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certification. At LeapFrogBI, we have team members who are already certified in Microsoft Fabric and ready to help your organization assess whether Fabric is right for you—and use it to achieve your business goals.
3. How is Microsoft Fabric different from Power BI?
Power BI is now part of the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem. While Power BI focuses on data visualization, Microsoft Fabric includes full capabilities for data movement, transformation, real-time event processing, and AI-powered insights, giving you a full-stack analytics platform.
